Abstract

ECHEVERRI, Danilo; ROMO, Juliana; GIRALDO, Néstor  and  ATEHORTUA, Lucía. Microalgae protoplasts isolation and fusion for biotechnology research. Rev. colomb. biotecnol [online]. 2019, vol.21, n.1, pp.101-112. ISSN 0123-3475.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rev.colomb.biote.v21n1.80248.

Protoplasts are microbial or vegetable cells lacking a cell wall. These can be obtained from microalgae by an enzymatic hydrolysis process in the presence of an osmotic stabilizer. In general, protoplasts are experimentally useful in physiological, genetic and biochemical studies, so their acquisition and fusion will continue to be an active research area in modern biotechnology. The fusion of protoplasts in microalgae constitutes a tool for strain improvement because it allows both intra and interspecific genetic recombination, resulting in organisms with new or improved characteristics of industrial interest. In this review we briefly describe the methodology for obtaining protoplasts, as well as fusion methods and the main applications of microalgal platforms.

Keywords : Enzymatic hydrolysis; microalgae; cell wall; protoplast fusion; strain improvement.

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